This is a rambling review of sorts.
Last you may have heard about this MMORTS (if you've heard of it at all) is that it died when Interplay folded and Majorem lost their publisher. Well, back in June 06 they found someone else to invest in them and are currently in open beta prior to launching some time this year.
As something to do, I signed up and
played beta tested
Ballerium for a while recently.
So, Ballerium is an RTS with some RPG attributes (ie pretty much all units can level up, get improvements through weapons and / or skills etc). Setting is a modified fantasy - if you turn your head and squint, you can see elves and dwares and such, but the races aren't much like that; it's more of an industrial vs environmental, warrior vs politician kind of race set-up. Of course, your squad can consist of any mix of races you choose, no mater the one you start off in. One mechanic that comes into play is Ballerium's sun - as it moves through different colour phases, races get either benefits or detriments to their hit point regeneration.
Sound is fine, graphics aren't earthshattering but they do the job. This game can probalby run on a low-end computer fairly easily - it's a pretty stable game from my experience with it.
Gameplay - If you've played an RTS, you've got a pretty good idea how this goes. However, there are limited unit movement options - there is no patrol options or waypointing afaik, just direct movement and guard / stop options.
At the basic level, you've got resource collecting and you've got fighting mobs as your main tasks. There are five different kinds of resources and you can generally find them pretty easily. You build a mine over that resource (yes, you mine Tofi wood and food as well as metal) and then send your caravans in to collect the resource until either they are full or the mine runs dry. This is not hard to do, just dull.
To interrupt this dullness, you can send your squad around to fight animals and monsters. Every so often you'll find a mob spawn structure, which you can destroy for more xp. Rifts spawn more powerful monsters and also spawn into a huge creature after you defeat the first "level" of the Rift structure.
At the higher level - and I believe that this is where Ballerium will shine - you are aiming for your side to control 70% of the world map so that you win and the game resets. You start to control the map by conquering cities. Every conquered city provides you with an income as well as a safe haven and place to build up your forces.
Ballerium is a persistant world, which means your city can be conquered at any time whether you are logged on or not. When you log off, your units will wander to the nearest Sanctuary (it's an option that's best left on, because your units are as dumb as rocks if left alone - chasing mobs off to god knows where and not returning). It's easy enough to buy new units, but it takes time to lvl a unit back up.
There is also a karma system that determines how big your squad can be and how many heroes it can have. Heroes are more powerful normal units that can get extra skills and reach lvl 10 (normal max lvl is 3, iirc).
My OpinionTo damn it with faint praise, I almost enjoyed this game.
I really tried to like this game, but the learning curve is too steep for me at this point in time. A number of veteran players have been at it a long time and know how to actually achieve things beyond the basic resource collection and hunting steps. If you can find one of these players to pass on that knowledge, you'll do fine. However, I started out with no help, no instructions and no reason to do anything, which isn't the best place for a confused newb to be. The online manual is some help, but only after you puzzle out what you want.
Also, you can only really solo the dull part of the game - resource collecting and hunting. Sure, apparently you can solo take a city, but good luck in holding it when you are offline.
For my money, if you went into Ballerium with a clear goal of what you should be doing as part of a greater team / guild, you'd probably have a good time conquering cities and building your forces. Gameplay could be quite tactical, with strategic decisions about what cities to take / defend being available to guild leaders. Solo... well, you'd need a higher tolerance to repetition than I do. Or more friends, take your pick.
There are other little bits and pieces that Ballerium has or is adding, but I think the above captures the gist of it. Open beta is on now, so if you want to check out an MMORTS that is trying something a bit different, give it a shot.
*insert your own "What has this got to do with SB / Shadowrun / Vangard" joke here*
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